Brexit Preparations

Question

1. How much has been spent on external consultants or support to advise on the implications and consequences of brexit, or recommend actions to mitigate any possible brexit impacts? If spend has occurred, please confirm the name of the supplier or suppliers and copies of any material produced by this process.

2. Please supply copies of any brexit planning documentation held by the organisation or consumed by senior management. This may include, but should not be limited to, Risk Assessments, Action Plans, Meeting minutes, Reports and presentations.

3. Please supply technical or advisory briefing documentation on brexit that has been produced by the organisation and supplied to other government agencies or bodies.

4. Please supply copies of any technical or advisory documentation that has been supplied to the agency from other public bodies that relates to Brexit contingency planning.

5. Please supply details of any assessment that has been made of the financial impact on the organisation, either positive or negative, of the brexit process. Has the organisation set-aside a contingency fund or invested as a direct consequence of the brexit process? If so, please provide summary details.

Response

1. There has been a zero spend within NSS on external consultants or support to advise on the implications and consequences of Brexit, or recommend actions to mitigate any possible Brexit impacts.

2. NSS has attached the following documents in our answer to Question 2: 

• 2018 09 26 Risk 4561 Brexit
• Impact of BREXIT on HPS work with European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
• Consultation on retained EU law regarding food and feed safety

NSS has published a Board Paper around EU withdrawal and have applied the Section 25 Exemption “Information Otherwise Accessible” as this information is currently available from our website. This document can be found at the following URL:https://nhsnss.org/media/2945/b1883-eu-withdrawal.pdf

The following documents have been redacted after applying the Section 38 Exemption “Personal Information”. Section 38 has been applied to these documents in order to redact staff names and contact details. There is no expectation for staff of this level to have their names and or direct contact details released into the public domain, and doing so would cause harm to the members of staff.

This exemption is subject to the Public Interest Test and NSS has concluded that there is no benefit to the public in releasing these names, and or direct contact details, as they are in no way related to the context of the correspondence and that there is no expectation to release this information in to the public domain.

• Brexit and EBA Membership_Redacted
• 2018-09-14-NSS_Response_to_SG_Operational_Preparidness_Checklist_Redacted
• 180830 PCF Return_Redacted
• 2018-09-05 HR Response to NHS Scotland Board Operational Readiness checklist - June 2018_Redacted

3. NSS has attached the following document in our answer to Question 3:

• letter to health & sport committee Oct 2018_Redacted

4. NSS has attached the following documents in our answer to Question 4:

• LETTER - PG - EU CITIZENS WORKING IN NHS SCOTLAND - 7 JULY 2017
• 2018 09 27 LETTER FROM JEANE FREEMAN MSP (2)
• Draft ToR Brexit Health Alliance v2
• Discussion paper - work priorities Brexit Health Alliance v5
• 20181004 Ltr OUT to SNBTS

NSS were made aware of the following publication on the UK Parliament website by the Scottish Government and have applied the Section 25 Exemption “Information Otherwise Accessible”. This information is currently available from their website:

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmhealth/392/39202.htm

NSS have applied Section 3(2)(a)(ii) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 “Information supplied in confidence by the UK Government” to information it has received from the Department of Health. This information is not “held” as it is held in confidence, having been supplied by a department of the UK Government.

More information on Section 3(2)(a)(ii) can be found within the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Section 28 “Relations within the United Kingdom” Exemption Guidance on pages 3 & 4, paragraphs 24 through 27.

Under the legislation NSS are obliged to apply the Section 17 Exemption “Information Not Held” and advise that you request this information from the UK Government under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 using the following URL:

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request

NSS has also applied the Section 32(1)(a) “International Relations” Exemption to information that we hold as disclosure would prejudice substantially the relations between the UK and the European Union, the interests of the UK abroad; and the promotion or protection by the UK of its interests abroad.

We have also applied the Section 33(2)(a) “The Economic Interests of the United Kingdom” Exemption to information that we hold as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the economic interests of the whole or part of the UK.

Both the Section 32 and 33 Exemptions are also subject to the Public Interest Test and NSS has determined that there is no interest to the public in releasing information that would detrimentally affect the UK’s relationship with member states of the European Union in relation to negotiations being held between the European Union and the UK.

5. As detailed in our answer to Question 2 NSS has generated a Board Paper around EU withdrawal and can be found at the following URL:

https://nhsnss.org/media/2945/b1883-eu-withdrawal.pdf